Word: aridity
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Hoping against hope that out of one of themWill come the reason for it all; and alwaysOut pops the arid chuckle and centuriesOf cuckoo-spit
Dominating the tableau of aimlessness, decay and sterile joy is the image that gives the poem its name: the parched desert through which a wanderer struggles in search of an oasis. When he comes upon a chapel in the arid mountains, he significantly finds this symbol of faith broken and deserted-"There is the empty chapel, only the wind's home." But at the deepest point of despair, the rumble of thunder brings promise of rain to the waste land. The poem ends with the Hindu incantation, like the first shower of long-looked-for rain, shantih, shantih, shantih...
Though trickily performed on two stage levels, The Bird Cage is all written at one. It has the arid, conscienceless professionalism of the hack; yet it fails less from being no good than from being no fun. The villain has almost every aspect of villainy except its fascination, the play every ingredient of melodrama except its punch...
...Russia and Turkey a cold wave swept into the Middle East, bringing with it a blizzard that raged for 48 hours. Over the Dead Sea and the arid Negeb desert fell a dense blanket of snow, a phenomenon never before recorded in modern Middle East history. Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Cyprus were also hit by the storm, but the infant state of Israel was caught least prepared and suffered most...
Reluctant Clouds. In arid regions like New Mexico, Langmuir explained, big cumulus clouds often rise high in the air without dropping any rain. In such cases, the air does not contain enough natural nuclei (suitable dust particles) for moisture to condense upon. The warm air from over a sun-heated plain boils upward vigorously, but the moisture in it does not condense until the cold upper levels are reached. Then it condenses suddenly into very small ice particles that drift off at about 35,000 feet, leaving the ground dry, its inhabitants disappointed...